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IS AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF MEXICO TO BE
FULFILLMENT INDIAN PROPHECY?
Merida, Yucatan, June 1. Ever
since rumors, of the possible occu
pancy of Mexico-4y United States
troops, Indians of that war-plagued
land have been strangely agitated.
Is this advent of the American to
be the fulfillment of their,ancient tra
dition that the deliverance of the op
pressed Mexican Indian shall come
with the arrival of the white man
from the North?
That was the promise of Itzama,
their hero god, whose book of wis
dom is their decalogue, though hid
den away through centuries.
The modern, and perhaps debased
type of the tribes, have been listening
to strange, portentious tales by the
old Caciques (chiefs) and wrinkled
tribal grannies of late.
And they are deserting by the hun
dred from the various Mexican
armies.
The tradition of delivering of the
Maya Indians of Yucatan and their
related Mexican tribes runs thus:
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French insurance companies keep
records of the teeth of their clients
to insure identification after deathj.near.
Itzama, their "hero god, came to
them from across the sea many
years ago. Previously the Indians
had lived like wild beasts, hunting
and being hunted. Itzama gathered
them together, showing them how'to
build, so that they became a power-
ful and enlightened nation. Peace
prevailed.
But Itzama departed. He left with
the tribe's elders his book of wisdom
to guide them. It dwelt emphatical
ly on the steps that must be taken
to guard against the entry of white
men from across seas "who would
come in boats with wings, bringing a
strange god. Professing him, they
would not have him in their hearts.
That part of Itzama's prophecy has
already been fulfilled, as the Mayas
know only too Veil, being the sons
and daughters of fathers fend moth
ers tortured and -robbed and killed by
the Spanish buccaneers. -
But there is a part. still to be ful
filled, they say.
Itzama's book declared that the'ir
true deliverer would be a white man,
coming out of the North, powerful
but kind, who should strike off their
shackles and deliver them from their
terrors.
Doomed to die, they say they are
and their days are numbered. But
in-the arms of the white emancipator
from the North they will pass away
in peace, as his equals.
Always and ever the old Indians
are seeking the" book of Kzama,
which, tradition has it, was hidden
away by the great Quanthemo,
brother of the Emperor Montezuma
before his torture by the Spanish to
prevent its falling into the hands of
Cortez.
The Indians of today are the same
in identity, custom and language as
they were when Cortez put his iron
heel on Montezutaa's neck. And they
think the day of their deliverance is "
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